EHE News
OSU Extension program influences youth spending, saving habits
Visit the Real Money, Real World website at http://realmoneyrealworld.osu.edu/.
Expanding credit card debt, lack of personal savings and an all-time high rate of mortgage foreclosures have many people convinced that financial education should be required beginning in high school.
Having this education empowers consumers in financial decision-making as well as protects them from predatory and illegal practices.
Real Money, Real World, a signature financial literacy program for students in grades 6 through 12, was created in response by OSU Extension. Nancy Hudson, now the Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) Extension director and educator for Medina County, helped launch the initiative and served as one of the program leaders. (Extension FCS is an outreach arm of the College of Education and Human Ecology.) The six-lesson curriculum helps make youth aware of the money management skills they need.
"We had presented variations of Real Money, Real World for several years with very positive feedback from students, teachers, community volunteers and parents," Hudson says. "So we standardized an Ohio curriculum to include presimulation lessons, documented simulation data, and a reflective lesson to emphasize and measure key learning objectives. This experiential approach produces an attitude adjustment in participants that will last far beyond the experience itself."
An active, hands-on experience, the program gives young people the opportunity to make lifestyle and budget choices similar to those they will make as adults. A 2009 study shows that participating in the program spurs young people to make significant changes immediately in their spending, saving and educational habits.
Lisa Sotak Bateson, a program assistant in OSU Extension's 4-H Workforce Preparation Initiative, conducted the study as her master's thesis. She surveyed 332 students from five counties who took part in the program three months earlier.
Bateson found that 98 percent of the students made at least some changes in their spending habits, 96 percent changed their savings habits, and 94 percent changed educational behaviors, such as working harder in school and discussing career interests with friends and family.
"One student said he saves money in a Pringles can on his nightstand," Bateson says. "One student now uses three piggy banks -- one for college, which has to be broken open to get the money out; one for long-term savings, which has a lock and key; and another one for short-term savings that can be accessed any time.
"To me, that says they're really doing these behaviors -- not just giving us the answers they think we want."
The Real Money, Real World curriculum CD is available for $13.50 from OSU Extension county offices. Support for implementing the curriculum is available in Ohio from OSU Extension educators. See the Real Money, Real World website for details.
To learn more about Real Money, Real World, watch the video at the program website or contact other founding members of the program, Nancy Recker, FCS Specialist, recker.22@cfaes.osu.edu, (419) 231-6085; or Beth Bridgeman, Extension Educator, 4-H Youth Development OSU Extension, Greene County, bridgeman.7@osu.edu, (937) 372-9971.
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